Engaging Culture with the wisdom and power of Christ!

Tag Archives: Barkingside

Had our first regular service in the library today. Met a new lady who had heard about us from someone who came to the crusade and intends to come regularly, but could not come tonight.

Also another pastor came to hear the Word. That is a blessing to me when Pastors come because they appreciate what I am preaching.

If you want to hear the sermon or download it on mp3, it is available here.

I just sense we are on the verge of something wonderful. I am just praying for strength to carry through until it breaks and we see a Spirit-filled Word of Faith multi-ethnic cell church in London and Essex.

Only 8 adults, mostly new people – all Christians. Then had one person come in off the street, he was sitting outside drinking and I invited him in, and I preached the gospel to him as if that was my intended message to all the Christians! He loved the message, and took my business card and a church card away with him.

We then prayed for him as a church and I preached on the free grace of God and how Christ has paid the complete price for all our sin and sickness and we can enjoy the righteousness of God. And also because it is free that we should welcome in people off the street no matter how different they seem.

I talked about respectable sins and disrespectable sins. Some slaves would be made to be cooks, treated well, almost as part of the family. Other slaves would be used as the family prostitute. One respectable, one disrespectable. Both slaves – both need redemption. Lazarus was dead and he stinketh – Jairus’ daughter was dead but could be mistaken for sleeping. You couldn’t mistake Lazarus for sleeping! Both needed resurrection.

Our sins might be “nice” ones or they might be “horrible” ones but we all need a Saviour so we should never be proud towards people who come who are obviously sinners and who stinketh and who are disrespectable because actually they need the same miracle we needed.

When I started to preach, the Lord said to me that the meeting was smaller but more significant and this is true because two ladies caught me at the end and want to join our church and our vision.

You know God didn’t say make crowds but make disciples, so I receive His Word that tonight has been more insignificant. The man who came in off the street said everyone made him feel so welcome even though he didn’t like large crowds (I know we are hardly a large crowd!!!)… afterwards I was discussing with my wife and every example I chose was relevant in his life, praise the Lord.

All in all a very positive night… tomorrow the Lord has told me the Holy Spirit is going to do special things. I cannot wait!

As our Wonderful News Healing Crusade is fast approach (first meeting two weeks tomorrow!) I am going out street witnessing and inviting people to the meetings. Today, I stood outside the main shopping centre in Ilford and handed out tracts and spoke to people for about 2 hours.

There was not much in the way of conversation going on – mainly because people were clearly in a hurry to get home for dinner (I understand that!) and from work (I understand that too!). I started a bit later than I intended to because when I arrived in Ilford, the heavens opened – not the glory ones but the raining ones! I had to take refuge in a bookshop until the rain stopped.

People were on the whole willing to take a leaflet. Asians in particular were remarkably polite and willing to talk. One genetleman from Sri Lanka who was a born again Christian had recently lost his job. We prayed on the street together for him to find work, and chatted for a while. He promised to come to the crusade on at least one night.

Thanks everyone who prayed for boldness for me and for open doors of communication today. Please pray for the same tomorrow when I am going to Barkingside.

In no particular order, we need the following things for our Wonderful News Healing Crusade from 11-14th August 2009.

1. A worship leader

As anyone who knows me knows, I cannot lead worship and have very little musical talent. Due to the fact we are in a library we are not allowed any amplification equipment. We can have an acoustic guitar and we have access to a piano on the last two nights, so if you know someone who can lead for us that would be wonderful. We need someone who is an individual (a band would be too loud), can play three or four songs that are upbeat, Biblically based (not begging and whining songs!) and who is a person full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Please believe God with us that we will find someone.

2. Ushers.

We have a couple already, but we ideally want 4. Again, people full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Willing to greet people, be positive, and take names and addresses of people who are saved and healed for follow up. Someone who is willing and able to lead someone to the Lord, lead someone into the baptism in the Holy Spirit and lay hands on the sick would be a bonus. In the church we are teaching on healing and ministering healing throughout July on Sunday afternoons, so we would expect our ushers to attend a couple of services in July at least.

3. We need people to attend.

People are drawn to crowds, so if you are reading this, then think about making your way to Essex in August and come and join with us. You will hear some great preaching (if I do say so myself) and see some great miracles (because God honours His Word!) and will be blessed. If you need accomodation, don’t worry, we will sort that for you.

4. A Banner.

I want a 3′ x 7′ banner to put up outside so people walking past will know about our meetings. I am going to price some up in the next week. If you know companies that make excellent banners at good value, then please let me know!

5. Tracts. We are submitting our plans to the printers and designers next week. Please pray for wisdom for them that they produce something truly eye catching and anointed.

6. Bibles. Thankfully a charity looks like it is going to be donating us 20 Bibles. Please pray this goes smoothly.

7. 4 sermons. Please pray for wisdom and revelation for me so I preach the Word of God and not tradition, with boldness and with humility and grace.

8. People help hand out leaflets. Door-to-door and in the streets of Ilford and Barkingside and possibly Romford and Barking too. If you can help for a few hours one evening or on Saturday, please let us know.

9. Advertising. My goal is to advertise in the local paper and on local radio. I would also like to advertise on Premier radio. Please pray that I will be able to get through to the decision makers easily and get eye catching adverts in all these places. Also, some money to get these adverts out would be lovely!

10. A Follow Up Plan. I want to be able to hand out Andrew Wommack literature to everyone who attends, and some clear teaching literature to everyone who is born again or healed or baptised in the Holy Spirit. I want to have a clear plan for collecting addresses and details of people who have their lives changed. I am not looking to steal sheep from other churches in the slighest, but when people come, are born again and have their lifes changed, I want to be able to pastor them and help feed them and help them renew their minds over time.

11. Boldness. Please pray we will have boldness to keep faithful to the Lord and His plan throughout the entire event.

Thanks in advance for your prayers and so on. If you are praying for us, add a comment to this post and let us know. We need encouragement too!